THE DOGS OF ST. KILDA. 99 



to me, when a lunatic with whom I happened to 

 be travelling in a midnight express from London 

 to the North, suddenly whipped out a revolver and, 

 clapping the cold muzzle to my temples, threatened, 

 without the slightest provocation, to blow my brains 

 out. In both cases J am persuaded that my mind 

 was too busy with the facts to allow the prime 

 agent of fear the imagination to operate. 



We tried the fish again, but somehow or other 

 our indiarubber sand-eels had lost their charm, and 

 now we toiled for nought. Our catch before the 

 storm, however, was by no means a small one ; as 

 upon landing we counted twenty splendid Coalfish, 

 averaging about ten pounds apiece, as they were 

 flung from the boat on to the rocks. 



I secured one for myself, as I wanted its entrails 

 to use as a lure for Ravens and Hooded- Crows. I 

 put the fish carefully away inside the cleit which 

 stood in front of our cottage, and walled up the 

 entrance in order to prevent the ever-prowling, fish- 

 loving dogs from getting at it. I believe that the 

 dogs of St. Kilda know from the sound of the 

 breakers when the tide is ebbing, for two or three 

 of them were always to be seen slinking backwards 

 and forwards along the narrow strip of sand visible 

 at the head of Village Bay during low water. I 

 do not remember being down at this spot once 

 without seeing them or their footprints. 



The next day being Sunday, and the longest in 

 the year of Grace eighteen hundred and ninety-six, 

 I waited until it had passed and my friends had 

 all tucked themselves away in their hammocks, when 

 I put on my great-coat, and seizing a couple of 

 military blankets and a double-barrelled gun, quietly 

 stole out of the house with the intention of passing 

 the rest of the night in the cleit in front of it, for 



